Barbara Kingsolver Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Life, Being Alone, Writing

• Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Creativity, People

• It is harrowing for me to try to teach 20-year-old students, who earnestly want to improve their writing. The best I can think to tell them is: Quit smoking, and observe posted speed limits. This will improve your odds of getting old enough to be wise.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Wise, Writing, Thinking

  "How to be Hopeful". Commencement Address by Barbara Kingsolver, today.duke.edu. 2008.

• There is no perfect time to write. There is only now.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Perfect

• Literature duplicates the experience of living in a way that nothing else can, drawing you so fully into another life that you temporarily forget you have one of your own. That is why you read it, and might even sit up in bed till early dawn, throwing your whole tomorrow out of whack, simply to find out what happens to some people who, you know perfectly well, are made up.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Drawing, People

• It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to understand the question. For me, the discipline is turning off the computer and leaving my desk to do something else.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Funny Things, Discipline

  "Barbara Kingsolver: How I Write". Interview with Noah Charney, www.thedailybeast.com. December 5, 2012.

• I learned to write by reading the kind of books I wished I'd written.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Book, Reading, Writing

• I know I have to write about the things that keep me awake at night.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Night, Awake

  The Writers Write Interview, writerswrite.co.za. February 10, 2015.

• Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see, be, or believe. It's more like conversation, raising new questions and inspiring you to answer them for yourself.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Moving, Believe, Writing

  "About Writing". www.kingsolver.com.

• Don't wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Work Ethic, Waiting

• The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Artist, Novelists

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “High Tide in Tucson”, p.172, Faber & Faber

• He had senile dementia and liked to go outside naked, but he could still do two things perfectly: win at checkers and write out prescriptions.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Funny, Writing, Winning

• Write a nonfiction book, and be prepared for the legion of readers who are going to doubt your fact. But write a novel, and get ready for the world to assume every word is true.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Book, Writing, Doubt

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “High Tide in Tucson”, p.160, Faber & Faber

• The writing has been on the wall for some years now, but we are a nation illiterate in the language of the wall. The writing just gets bigger. Something will eventually bring down the charming, infuriating naïveté of Americans that allows us our blithe consumption and cheerful ignorance of the secret ugliness that bring us whatever we want.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Wall, Ignorance, Writing

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.317, Faber & Faber

• This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Editors, Appreciate

• Silence has many advantages…I write and draw in my notebook and I read anything I please.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Notebook, Writing, Silence

  Barbara Kingsolver (2008). “The Poisonwood Bible”, p.31, Faber & Faber

• My way of finding a place in this world is to write one.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, World, Way

  Barbara Kingsolver (2011). “Small Wonder”, p.281, Faber & Faber

• I concentrate on character, theme, language, structure, voice. It actually surprises me that no matter what I write, people declare it "intently political." I'm just writing about the world I know, as it is. Wounds and griefs included.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Grief, Character, Writing

  Interview with Crystal Wilkinson, appalachianheritage.net. November 20, 2014.

• Pay attention to your passions. They are the key to starting and finishing the book you are meant to write. I don't believe in talent. I believe in passion.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Believe, Book, Passion

  The Writers Write Interview, writerswrite.co.za. February 10, 2015.

• Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It's discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Zero, Writing, Trying

• I didn't study writing in school, I studied biology as an undergraduate and graduate student. So I think that I write fiction in the scientific way. I love invention, obviously; I love creation of character. But I do feel very rooted in the real world, even in the way that I create characters.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Real, Writing, School

• I don't *ever* write about real people. Art is supposed to be better than that. If you want a slice of life, look out the window.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Art, Real, Writing

• In fact, one of the things that I really love about literary fiction is that it's one of the few kinds of writing that doesn't tell us what to think or what to buy or what to wear. We're surrounded by advertising.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Thinking, Facts

• I struggle with confidence, every time. I’m never completely sure I can write another book. Maybe my scope is too grand, my questions too hard, surely readers won’t want to follow me here. A novel is like a cathedral, it knocks you down to size when you enter into it.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Struggle, Book, Writing

  "About Writing". www.kingsolver.com.

• It takes some courage to write fiction about politically controversial topics. The dread is you'll be labeled a political writer.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Writing, Controversial Topics, Political

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